This invention is directed generally to a support member for electrical components and more particularly to a one-piece integrally formed support member for mounting one or more electrical components in a predetermined orientation or attitude relative to a circuit board.
In many applications it is desirable to mount one or more electrical components to a circuit board in a fixed, predetermined orientation or attitude relative to the circuit board. For example, components such as indicator lamps or light emitting diodes (LEDs) must often be mounted for electrical connection with other components on the circuit board, while remaining in a given orientation for alignment with an external display panel. When the instrument or other device is fully assembled, it will be appreciated that the display panel will have some predetermined orientation relative to the circuit boards within the instrument. One or more lamps or LEDs may be intended as a portion of a display or may be intended to be viewed through suitable windows or the like in the display panel. Accordingly, these lamps or LEDs must be oriented in a given orientation with respect to the circuit boards on which they are mounted, to assure such visibility when the display panel is assembled with the device or instrument.
If each lamp or LED is merely affixed by its leads to the circuit board and thereafter the leads are bent or formed to achieve the desired attitude or orientation of the lamp or LED, much room for error exists. Particularly in the case where a plurality of such lamps or LEDs are mounted to a given circuit board, small errors in orienting one or more of the lamps can result in difficulty in finally aligning and assembling the display or other desired panel therewith. This in turn can lead to a great deal of relatively expensive individual manual adjustment of components for proper interfitting thereof during assembly.
This difficulty can be partially overcome through the use of various jigs or alignment fixtures during assembly, and preferably by the use of such jigs or alignment fixtures during soldering of the LED or lamp terminals to assure proper alignment thereof. Such jigs or fixtures would ordinarily be removed prior to final assembly of the display or other panels with the properly aligned bulbs or LEDs. Hence, care must be taken during such final assembly not to disturb the orientations of the LEDs or lamps.